title: Voronoi-based spatial analysis reveals selective interneuron changes in the cortex of FALS mice.
abstract: The neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis affects lower motoneurons and corticospinal cells. Mice expressing human mutant superoxide dismutase (SOD)1 provide widely investigated models of the familial form of disease, but information on cortical changes in these mice is still limited. We here analyzed the spatial organization of interneurons characterized by parvalbumin immunoreactivity in the motor, somatosensory, and visual cortical areas of SOD1(G93A) mice. Cell number and sociological spatial behavior were assessed by digital charts of cell location in cortical samples, cell counts, and generation of two-dimensional Voronoi diagrams. In end-stage SOD1-mutant mice, an increase of parvalbumin-containing cortical interneurons was found in the motor and somatosensory areas (about 35% and 20%, respectively) with respect to wild-type littermates. Changes in cell spatial distribution, as documented by Voronoi-derived coefficients of variation, indicated increased tendency of parvalbumin cells to aggregate into clusters in the same areas of the SOD1-mutant cortex. Counts and coefficients of variation of parvalbumin cells in the visual cortex gave instead similar results in SOD1-mutant and wild-type mice. Analyses of motor and somatosensory areas in presymptomatic SOD1-mutant mice provided findings very similar to those obtained at end-stage, indicating early changes of interneurons in these cortical areas during the pathology. Altogether the data reveal in the SOD1-mutant mouse cortex an altered architectonic pattern of interneurons, which selectively affects areas involved in motor control. The findings, which can be interpreted as pathogenic factors or early disease-related adaptations, point to changes in the cortical regulation and modulation of the motor circuit during motoneuron disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Histology and Forensic Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Florence, Florence, Italy. diego@unifi.it
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Minciacchi
authors.forename: Roman M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Kassa
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Del Tongo
authors.forename: Raffaella
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Mariotti
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bentivoglio
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000473:pathology*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006801:Humans; D007395:Interneurons / Q000502:physiology*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D010320:Parvalbumins / Q000378:metabolism; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D010320:Parvalbumins; C109415:SOD1 G93A protein; D013482:Superoxide Dismutase